CSU men still have plenty to play for

Two-game skid a 'wake-up' call

FORT COLLINS -- The sun has set and risen multiple times now since Colorado State lost to New Mexico this past Saturday.

The Rams' program record 27-game home win streak -- and chance for its first-ever Mountain West title -- may have ended that day in a barrage of Kendall Williams' 3-pointers, but CSU's chance a historical season did not.

Three more wins would still set a program record for most victories in a single season, and winning the final two at Moby Arena would cap the team's home record at 16-1, which would be a school record.

The second-place Rams (21-6, 8-4 MW), though, are only concerned about getting one more win right now, and that's tonight against last-place Fresno State (9-17, 3-10 MW).

"We still have a lot of basketball, and a lot of things we can accomplish. But it starts with winning (Wednesday)," senior forward Pierce Hornung said. "We've got a good team coming in that plays incredibly hard, and we've just got to got out and play our game and get that win."

CSU, which dropped from both national polls Monday after going 0-2 last week, is coming off consecutive losses for the second time this season. Last time that happened, in early December following road losses to Colorado and Illinois-Chicago, the team rolled off seven straight wins. Six of those were by at least 17 points, arguably the team's best stretch of 2012-13.

Losing is never good for a team, players said Saturday and reiterated Tuesday, but it can at least serve as motivation going forward.

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"It's definitely a wake-up call," sophomore guard Jon Octeus said of his team's two-game slide. "If we were as motivated as we should've been, we shouldn't have needed a wake-up call. But now that we got one, I think all the guys are motivated. Everybody's locked in and ready to go."

Tonight (7 p.m., no TV) the Bulldogs are making their first-ever visit to Fort Collins as a member of the Mountain West and are led by guard Tyler Johnson. The 6-foot-2 junior has scored in double figures in 10 of his past 11 games, including a MW-best 23-point effort against CSU in the Rams' win at Fresno on Jan. 23.

That was the second straight time an opposing guard went for at least 23 against CSU, and it's happened four times since, including Air Force's Michael Lyons and UNM's Williams going for at least 45 in two of the past three.

But despite all that, the Rams aren't significantly adjusting their perimeter defense, Octeus said. Just like they have all season, they'll continue going under screens, at least until an opposing player proves during a game that he can consistently knock down 3-pointers.

"We'll still stick to our principles. We're not really going to change anything," Octeus said. "Guys have gotten hot in the last two out of three games, guards have. It's just urgency. We've to play with more urgency. Just play with more physicalness, take pride in guarding people, and I don't think we'll have a problem with that."

Rams coach Larry Eustachy said last week that "Colorado State is no longer Colorado State the pushover" meaning that, with the rise of the program and its home-court dominance came greater intensity from opposing teams coming to Moby. CSU saw that from the Lobos on Saturday and expects to see again from the Bulldogs tonight.

"We're looking for a real close game," Eustachy said on Monday's weekly teleconference. "They're good; every team's good. They beat UNLV, who might be playing better than anyone in this league right now. They're all going to be close as we get down to the wire."

Getting every team's best shot is something Hornung said his team should welcome.

"That comes with success. And you've got to accept that, and you've got to embrace it, and you've got to welcome it," he said. "As a competitor, you've got to love that, that you're getting every team's best shot night in and night out. That makes it fun."

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